WWALS Watershed Coalition advocates for conservation and stewardship of the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, and Suwannee River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.

Fifteen percent is high intensity urban of the area a mile around the 7 LNG plants studied.
That means lots of people near these dangerous facilities.

24% of land within a mile of Florida LNG transport routes is high intensity urban,
with another 7% low intensity urban.
So many people are at risk, in addition to estuaries, wetlands, forests, crops,a nd pastures.

I talked about all the items on the
alides, plus some topics raised by questions from the audience.

For example, they were horrified to hear that (according to GA-PSC),
AGL did not follow its own corporate procedures to investigate
the Homerville, GA pipeline gas explosion.
Eileen Box mentioned that the source of AGL’s gas, Southern Natural Gas,
also has a pipeline that runs through her property in Suwannee County.

FPL’s planned-for-a-decade pipeline to the sea just happens to connect
Sabal Trail with an LNG export port. Nevermind that this MR-RV Lateral
was never run through the FERC permitting process: FERC rolled it into
Florida Southeast Connection.

FPL is seeking state approval for a 32-mile natural gas pipeline to
provide an uninterrupted supply to Florida Power & Light Co.’s
new Riviera Beach plant.

Map: Palm Beach Post, 31 March 2012.

The story said FPL was working with FDEP to determine the final route.
It also said:

The project is not related to FPL’s proposed $1.5 billion, 300-mile
natural gas pipeline that would have run from Bradford County to
Martin County. The Florida Public Service Commission Continue reading →

Solar in Florida is not just for Duke and FPL anymore:
Tampa Electric is building 260 megawatt hours of solar power, and
the Florida PSC and Office of Public Counsel are praising it for reducing
coal and natural gas burning.
Even FPSC, which approved the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline boondoggle
only five years ago, is starting to look up and see the sun in the Sunshine State.

We went to Rum 138 to see Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson,
when Janet Barrow and I needed to know about the early move of the Sabal Trail pipeline off of the Ichetucknee River.
Merrillee, Janet, and I are writing a book about five years working together
promoting solar power and opposing that hazardous fracked methane boondoggle.

Three laptops and mounds of paper were used.
Almost three months later, we’re still digesting what Merrillee turned up
out of her archives.
Things we didn’t realize about fossil fuel feints and many solar successes
are becoming clear as we compare notes.

In a March 3, 2016, letter, the Federal Railroad Administration
warned Florida East Coast Railway of the danger of transporting
Liquefied Natural Gas on the same tracks as high-speed passenger
rail. What could go wrong? Do the math…. If an LNG container is
breached, accidentally or intentionally, the liquid begins to warm,
resulting in a Flammable Vapor-Cloud that can be blown around by the
wind, igniting everything in its path. In Fernley, Nevada, the
Flammable Vapor-Cloud fire from a tanker truck loaded with 10,000
gallons of LNG appeared to have been caused by static electricity.
Flames shot 40 feet into the air and fire officials evacuated the
area. The fire burned for a couple of days, before eventually
burning itself out.

As
that facebook group says,
if you want to help stop fires like that from happening in Florida or Georgia,
you can contribute to the WWALS legal fund
for the pending case against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
for shirking its inland LNG oversight duty.

Crystal River, Florida, October 18, 2018 —
Strom, Inc. now proposes exporting liquid natural gas (LNG) by tanker ship
through the port of Tampa.
That explosive cargo would get there by land from Crystal River
through densely populated areas.
LNG tanker ships would go out right by downtown Tampa and St. Petersburg, and under the I-275 bridge.
Strom has always said some of this fracked methane would likely come from
the Sabal Trail pipeline.
Getting on with solar power for the Sunshine state makes a lot more sense
than shipping gas under our rivers, through private property, and by major cities for corporate export profit.
Clean energy for Florida and beyond is an issue in this election year.

Map: by WWALS, from federal and state filings of LNG export operations.

Strom “may elect to file an amendment to our application to allow
transportation of LNG by LNG tanker,”
according to its latest semi-annual report
to the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE)
Office of Fossil Energy (FE) (see http://wwals.net/?p=46497),
According to Strom’s website it means LNG tanker ships, like this one:
Continue reading →

Strom has insisted on liquid natural gas (LNG) in shipping containers since 2014, back when it tried to get FERC to state it wasn’t overseeing small-export LNG.
Strom still aims to export through the Port of Tampa, and maybe other ports.

“As a direct result of recent Offtake and LNG supply requests, Strom
may elect to file an amendment to our application to allow
transportation of LNG by LNG tanker.”

We are fortunate here in the Suwannee River Basin.
We don’t have cyanobacteria blooming from glyphosate in our rivers
with dead fish stinking tens of miles inland.

But we do have plenty of environmental problems.
When you vote in the primary today (if you haven’t already voted early),
and as you vote in the general election in November,
you may want to ask yourself about each candidate,
from city council to County Commissioner to school board to statehouse to statewide official to governor, and don’t forget judges:

Do they support banning fracking?

Do they oppose more phosphate mines?

Will they help stop fertilizer leaching into our springs and rivers,
including getting financial and other support for the Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs)?

Will they help us all find out how E. coli and fecal coliform are getting into our rivers and wells, and from where, by assisting in water quality monitoring, and will they then do something about it?

Will they hold accountable those who produced coal ash and get them to dispose of it responsibly?

Will they oppose fossil fuel pipelines, and do something about the safety of those that exist?

Will they help rein in the rogue agency FERC, including about oversight of
liquid natural gas (LNG) export?

Will they help the Sunshine State get on with solar power,
so that nobody has to be without power for weeks after a hurricane,
and we can shut down more fossil fuel power plants and close some pipelines?

These are just some of the issues WWALS deals with all the time.
You don’t have to know about all these issues; every one of them is important.
You may have other environmental issues.

If you don’t know how the candidates stand on these issues,
maybe you’d like to ask them before November.
Still, some of them must have stated positions before the primary today.

Sure, the economy matters, but how many jobs do polluted springs and rivers bring?
Do people come to Florida to smell rotting fish from their vacation or permanent homes?
There is no economy without an environment, and water is the basis of it all, including public health.

As demonstrated by Hurricane Irma, major storms deteriorate water quality, threaten human health, and undermine Florida’s economy. Absent more proactive action and investment in becoming more resilient, water quality protection, and adaptation efforts, Florida’s economy, environment, and public health will suffer.

We should all care about what is happening in south Florida.
Obviously because those are people just like us who live there, not to mention
the wildlife and the rest of the ecology, and what happens there affects
the economy of the rest of Florida and the nation.

After Hurricane Irma, Lowndes County, Georgia, where I live, gained 100 new
residents from Florida.
(That’s right: Suwannee Riverkeeper lives in Georgia.
Rivers can’t read; they don’t know somebody drew a state line on a map.)
If the south Florida situation continues or gets worse, people will move north.
Many of them will move to north Florida or south Georgia, further affecting our waters.

So don’t forget about candidates:

Do they support stopping the destruction of south Florida’s lakes, rivers, and coasts by fertilizer and pesticides from big agriculture and lawns?

As an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity, WWALS cannot support or oppose any specific candidate for office.
But we can bring issues to your attention.